6 held for selling dupes of branded cosmetics

Mumbai: Mumbai crime branch’s property cell arrested a gang of six persons for allegedly selling duplicate, sub-standard cosmetic and beauty products in the name of Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL). The accused were booked for violation of the Copyright Act’s provisions, following a Bombay high court directive to the Mumbai police to register a case and investigate after HUL approached it.

Those arrested are printers and small time operators who assisted the main accused, Wahab Sayyad, who allegedly ran the racket. The property cell had formed several teams to hunt down Sayyad.

Officials said that there is no clarity for now as to for how long the racket was in operation and how they produced the duplicates. “We have arrested the six accomplices of main accused only early on Sunday. Those arrested are printers and lower rung persons in the racket,” said a crime branch officer. He added, “Court officers have also seized fake products and further probe is underway.”

The investigators stated that the racket was of printing duplicate stickers of HUL and pasting them on sub-standard products to project them as branded ones. The officials said that cosmetics like kajal, foundation powder, eyeliners, mascara, eye shadow and other beauty products were fraudulently sold in the market.

The HUL authorities had approached the HC seeking intervention in investigation in the matter. After the writ was filed officers conducted raids at several warehouses and seized substantial quantities of these duplicate products worth several lakhs.